Lost & found : Rachel Reckitt's book illustrations, including the complete set of woodblocks engraved for "The Mill on the
Floss," & what was lost in their making by Hal Bishop(
Book
)3
editions published
in
2010
in
English
and held by
27 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
In 1950, the publisher Paul Elek commissioned Rachel Reckitt to engrave sixteen whole-page illustrations for George Eliot's
THE MILL ON THE FLOSS ... The blocks turned out to be Rachel's finest illustrative work, but Elek went into receivership and
tragically [the engravings] were never published. The images were exhibited for the first time in 1997, from proofs that Rachel
had taken after engraving the blocks. Shortly afterwards the blocks themselves came to light, when it was realised that the
non-appearance of the engravings had been a double tragedy, for on the reverse of the blocks were parts of other much larger
engravings done by Rachel before the war. Due to the wartime shortage of boxwood she had sawn the blocks down to less than
half size. Lost and Found will show all sixteen of the blocks for The Mill on the Floss for the first time, as well as reconstructing
the larger palimpsest images on the reverse of the blocks. -- Publisher's description